Search

Search results

Displaying 21 - 30

Magi

(Encyclopedia) MagiMagimāˈjī [key], priestly caste of ancient Persia. Probably Median in origin, they were, according to Herodotus, a tribe rather than a priestly family. Zoroaster is thought to have…

Boiardo, Matteo Maria

(Encyclopedia) Boiardo or Bojardo, Matteo MariaBoiardo or Bojardo, Matteo Mariamät-tĕˈō märēˈä bōyärˈdō [key], 1441?–1494, Italian poet, count of Scandiano. A favorite at the Este court in Ferrara,…

Aesop

(Encyclopedia) AesopAesopēˈsəp, ēˈsŏp [key], legendary Greek fabulist. According to Herodotus, he was a slave who lived in Samos in the 6th cent. b.c. and eventually was freed by his master. Other…

Halicarnassus

(Encyclopedia) HalicarnassusHalicarnassushălˌĭkärnăˈsəs [key], ancient city of Caria, SW Asia Minor, on the Ceramic Gulf (now the Gulf of Kos) and on the site of the modern city of Bodrum, Turkey.…

Xerxes

Xerxes I ruled ancient Persia from 485-465 B.C., presiding over its decline from mighty power to fading empire. His father Darius was defeated by the Greeks at the battle of Marathon (490 B.C.), and…

Strabo

(Encyclopedia) StraboStrabostrāˈbō [key], b. c.63 b.c., d. after a.d. 21, Greek geographer, historian, and philosopher, b. Amasya, Pontus. He studied in Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, and Alexandria and…

King Croesus

The last king of Lydia (c. 560-546 B.C.), Croesus was so famously rich that his name became a byword for wealth in the expression "rich as Croesus." He allied Lydia (in Asia Minor, now Turkey) with…

Post Office Motto

The Question: I roughly recall that the motto of the U.S. Postal Service is in part, "Neither snow nor rain nor dark of night . . ." How does the rest go? Who wrote it? And…

pipe smoking

(Encyclopedia) pipe smoking. The habit of smoking various substances probably arose independently in different parts of the world. Herodotus in the 5th cent. b.c. describes the Scythians as inhaling…

Sarmatia

(Encyclopedia) SarmatiaSarmatiasärmāˈshə [key], ancient district between the Vistula River and the Caspian Sea, gradually conquered and occupied by the Sarmatians [Lat. Sarmatae] or Sauromatians (a…